Race heats up for Operating Engineers union presidency

If the candidates for president of the union for heavy-equipment operators jousted with bulldozers, their campaigns couldn’t be much more dramatic.

The race for president of Operating Engineers Local 150 is the most contentious the union has seen in a generation. It’s hostile, replete with talk of crooked deals, theft of union resources and a federal corruption probe.

Even Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich has stepped into the fray, elevating challenger Joe Ward’s profile by appointing him to a labor panel. In last year’s election, longtime union President Bill Dugan gave the union’s endorsement to Judy Baar Topinka, the Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Blagojevich.

Local 150 is one of the most powerful unions in the Midwest, with 23,000 members operating cranes, bulldozers, backhoes and other heavy-construction equipment. Conceivably, it could shut down major construction sites across its region, from eastern Iowa through northern Illinois to northern Indiana.

Ballots go to members Aug. 11. They’re counted Aug. 25.

Local 150 is the union of litigators. Over the past year, members filed at least five lawsuits against each other, including one accusing Ward of pilfering private membership data for use in his campaign.

On Friday, a group of union fund trustees sued Ward, saying he used training equipment for private business. Ward denied the charge.

The candidates offered little in the way of philosophical difference. Instead, they mostly trashed each other.

"Basically what this is all about is people staying too long," Ward said.

Dugan accuses Ward of being too cozy with owners of companies with whom the union negotiates contracts. He says Ward has failed to disclose a range of business conflicts on government records.

James Sweeney, the union's vice president and Dugan’s running mate, said he recently sat across a bargaining table from a contractor who was Ward’s partner in a Florida casino — a site to which Ward recruited Local 150 members to work.

"Is he going to push for the very best contract for you, or is he going to look at his business partner and try to do something for him?" Sweeney asked.

Ward said his relationships with some contractors span decades and he can’t help joining them in the occasional business deal.

He said Dugan would sooner put the union’s weight behind political candidates who favor gun rights than behind those dedicated to labor. Sweeney countered by saying Dugan offered substantial support to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley — as anti-gun as they come.

Ward said Dugan reached "a settlement" with the union after using training equipment for private purposes. Sweeney said at least Dugan — but not Ward — reimbursed the union for that cost.

Ward said FBI agents have been asking about Dugan’s deals. Sweeney said the FBI probe is much broader than that: "The FBI, I think, is investigating everything now."

Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.